Soon to be undergoing long-overdue repairs. Photograph provided by LHOON |
I write this during the weekend anticipating all the rants and rages we’re going to hear Monday from South Side residents who have to rely on the Chicago Transit Authority’s “Red Line” trains.
That,
of course, is the line that was shut down completely beginning Sunday so that
crews can work around the clock (instead of in shifts around “el” trains) for
the next five months to upgrade the track.
IF
IT HAD been done in shifts, it would take years to complete the work. Which
would mean years of inconvenience.
By
doing an outright shutdown, the work can be completed sooner and the benefits
to be derived from upgrading the train that runs down the middle of the Dan
Ryan Expressway to 95th Street will be felt sooner.
For
what it’s worth, CTA officials claim that improved tracks will allow for the “el”
trains to speed through the area faster – possibly reducing as much as 10
minutes off the total commute for anyone who goes from 95th Street
all the way to downtown.
Now
as one who has, from time to time in my life, had to rely on commuter trains
for transit (and still uses them on occasion), I comprehend that it’s going to
be a pain in the behind for those people who are used to relying on the Red
Line (which, in a sign that reveals my age, I still think of as the Dan Ryan
Line).
THEY’RE
GOING TO have to find an alternative. And I’m sure there are some for whom
shifting to a Green Line (a.k.a., Englewood/Jackson Park Line) train or using
the Metra Electric trains that make stops on the Sout’ Side between Michigan
Avenue and Blue Island is not going to be practical.
Some
people may have their livelihoods seriously interfered with by this repair
work.
But
the simple fact is that all things eventually wear down. Eventually, everything
needs serious upgrades in order to keep them in use. Unless we want them to
deteriorate to the point where they become unusable – if not downright
hazardous!
Now
some people want to see a racial angle in this move because of the fact that
this repair work is going to impact overwhelmingly African-American
neighborhoods – since the reality is that many of the white people who use the
southern extension of the Red Line (they think of it as the train that goes
north to Howard Street and cuts through the Lincoln Park and Lake View
neighborhoods) are off the train by 35th Street.
WHICH
MEANS THE Chicago White Sox may be impacted – although many fans I talk with
say they already try to avoid the Red Line crowds and prefer other ways (I’m inclined
to try the Metra Rock Island line train with its nearby stop named for one-time
state Rep. Lovana Jones) of getting to U.S. Cellular Field.
JONES: No, she didn't play for the Sox |
I’m
not sure I buy that angle. Although if there is a racial angle to this issue,
it may well be that CTA officials were willing to let the southern part of the
Red Line deteriorate to its current condition without having done these repairs
much earlier.
The
Red Line dates back to the 1960s, and there are parts of the track that are now
going to be replaced that literally date back to the opening.
Although
I suppose compared to how old the Green Line extensions to neighborhoods on the
West Side were (just over a century) when CTA officials finally got around to
doing upgrades on that track in recent years, the Red Line might be considered
in prime condition.
THE
POINT BEING that this work is long overdue. We never hear of the elevated train lines running through North or Northwest Side neighborhoods going that long a time period without repairs.
And
if it had been done in a more-timely manner, the commuter inconvenience would
be long past – a thing of history.
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